“If you are going to report something, please investigate it first, and TRY to get it right. Journalism has a responsibility to report facts, which, you have not done in this case.”

I didn’t report the issue in the first place. I pointed out that the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest and most read newspaper, broke the story right from the beginning. They are the ones who “reported” the issue as their lead story on Saturday June 6th’s edition of the paper. In fact I pointed this out several times that I was quoting from their article in my blog posting.

“a) Toronto Fire Services (not department) uses a fully computerized dispatching system, which incorporates GPS/AVL ( real time vehicle tracking )on a computer generated map screen at the Dispatchers desk. This system has been in place for years. The “magnets” refered to are used at the Captain’s position to keep up aparatus status not when vehicles are on calls, but mechanical, training, and out of services status’s.”

The system is ancient already as it is a carryover from the 1998 amalgamation from the City of North York. If it is so advanced why must the dispatcher have to locate the nearest fire hall to the emergency situation in order to dispatch the trucks. Surely the system itself could find the nearest hall with available vehicles to the situation and all the dispatcher would have to do is hit “GO” on the screen to dispatch the truck(s) to the scene. There were other issues that the Toronto Star article pointed out where dispatch was not meeting the North American standard for firefighting dispatching of vehicles.

If the dispatch system was so advanced, why did it take 2 minutes instead of the North American Standard 1 minute to dispatch trucks to the Superior Propane fire in Toronto? That question and others Toronto Fire Services refused to answer for the Toronto Star reporter.

As for the fridge magnets. The Toronto Star pointed out that the fridge magnets are used to show where the city’s resources are at any one time and called it: “They are like Winston Churchill’s WWII admirals overseeing destroyers on a map of the oceans.” This seems antiquated as well. If the trucks and othe equipment are out of service they shouldn’t be put on a map viewable to all. They should be listed as “unavailable” and given a reason (e.g. repair, training, etc.) with an expected return date listed. This list should be updated on a daily basis by the fire captain. The main map should used to show where usable fire equipment is and where current situations are unfolding.

But the map, it seems to me from reading the article, does keep track of where every piece of fire equipment is using fridge magnets which is still antiquated to say the least. This is especially so considering that there is another wall available for this type of screen could be utilized. However it is currently used for watching hockey games and soap operas (as the Toronto Star article pointed out).

“b) 911 calls are answered by Toronto Police Services, and the call is Transfered to the Fire Services.”

The Toronto Star article that I’m commenting on never mentioned this. The Toronto Star article was pointing out the issues of dispatch after Toronto Fire gets the call. But thanks for adding this part to the discussion.

“c) Toronto’s almagamation occurred in 1998″

Thanks for correcting this part. I’ve changed this date in the original article.

a) Toronto Fire Services (not department) uses a fully computerized dispatching system, which incorporates GPS/AVL ( real time vehicle tracking )on a computer generated map screen at the Dispatchers desk. This system has been in place for years. The “magnets” refered to are used at the Captain’s position to keep up aparatus status not when vehicles are on calls, but mechanical, training, and out of services status’s.

b) 911 calls are answered by Toronto Police Services, and the call is Transfered to the Fire Services.

c) Toronto’s almagamation occurred in 1998